Christmas is Here!

Last week was a big week for us as far as the official start of Christmas celebrating goes!  I have so many pictures, I could probably do 3 posts out of just last week alone.

We started the week off by decorating.  (Erik and I had Monday off because, yet again, we had another birthmom change her mind on us!  Seriously.  We had planned on meeting her on Monday, however, over the weekend she contacted a different agency and met a different family that she ended up connecting with and decided she didn't need to meet us.  It's getting a bit ridiculous how many times we've been let down in this process.)  Anyway, back to happier topics...while Kade was at daycare, I decorated the house!  Erik and I both picked Kade up, which is an extremely rare occurrence, and that was enough to thrill him but he was over the moon when he got home and saw the house all decorated.  He was convinced that Santa did it while we were all gone for the day.  We never told him about this birthmom--no need to let him down too--so as far as he knew we were at work.  Thus, it just HAD to be Santa!

Then, Lady A and her mom came for a visit and brought their Christmas gifts.  Now that Kade doesn't require daily naps they can come for a whole day, rather than just the afternoon.  So, Kade opened a few of his gifts, then we all went to the mall so he could put his annual gift under the "Thanksgiving Tree", as he calls it. 

Afterward, "S" treated us to lunch at Kade's favorite restaurant, Noodles, and we headed back to our house for more gifts, food and play.  Kade is in a stage now that whatever activity he's doing he has to dress the part.  So, if he's playing football he has to wear his football uniform.

K & S got him a whole Vikings uniform!

If he's doing work, of course he has to wear work jeans!

His birth-great-grandparents got him this super cool digger!

And if he's playing basketball, he puts on shorts and basketball shoes.  He literally changed his clothes about 15 times while they were here!

Here he is in his shorts, opening his last gift, before heading downstairs for a game of hoops.  

How cool is this trike that Lady A got him?!  I'm so jealous I didn't have a sweet ride like this when I was little!

Finally, we capped off the week with a trip down to LaCrosse to play with Owen, Ellie and Rylee and to see the Christmas lights at Riverside Park.  The weather wasn't supposed to be good so we weren't sure if we were going to attempt the hour drive.  When Erik mentioned this, Kade cried, "We HAVE to go!  I want to play with Owen, he's my best friend!".  And I cried, "We HAVE to go!  I HAVE to play with Megan, she's my best friend!".  Poor Erik didn't stand a chance :-)

The weather never ended up being as bad as it was supposed to be, the kids had a blast playing, the dad's got to watch football all afternoon and I got to spend the day with Megan.  Everybody won!  

Megan and I did a little shopping and found some amazing Christmas apparel.  And, because she is my best friend, she won't mind that I posted this beautiful picture of her in the beautiful apparel:

I might have a similar picture of us, however that post will have to wait until after our Christmas cards go out :-)

When the sun went down, it was off to see the lights and Santa!  Although Kade still wouldn't sit with him, he did make progress this year.  He didn't cry and he even told Santa what he wanted!

Gotta love the look of pure fear on Kade's face!  But no tears!!

Although the week started out a little disappointing, it ended on a great note.  Lady A's visit served to remind us that even though we've had more than our fair share of let downs on our path to parenthood, Kade is the biggest, brightest star to enter our lives.  We are extremely blessed to be his parents!